The Laundry

Jupiter is anchored up in Mosquito Cove at the Inian Islands, at the edge of the Pacific where a great tidal exchange feeds the food chain. We are outside the Inside Passage and inside the protection of an archipelago from the outside waves and weather from Cross Sound. Inside out and crossed out. Double crossed.

After arriving in the aerial manner daughter Alice and her boyfriend, Ky, don Alaska Sneakers, footwear for exploring ashore.

Jupiter is hooked bordering long lashings of kelp with fish rising, gulls soaring, sea otters flashing furry faces and sea lions slapping and savaging salmon with a violence warning Jupiter’s shipmates to keep their distance.

Kelp is our friend – until it is not. This healthy bed of ribbon and bull kelp lies in the narrows connecting our anchorage to The Hobbit Hole

Nearby our quiet cove roils a restless reckoning of seawater pouring in and out of SE Alaska. Here is the pescatarian plaza where native seiners fish backwards using currents to propel the catch into the net rather than the net into the catch. This place of agitation is known as The Laundry.

A Pigeon Guillemot on the wing and our review of Mosquito anchorage on Active Captain, a source of mariner opinions on useful locations.

Wily King Worries

Oh! What a wily King am I
On the salmon scale of four I’m a five
Carefree at sea, I’ve gotten so fat
Eating krill, herring, and fish-fingers like that
I’m strong, in good shape, agile and sleek
In time to swim home to my freshwater creek
I feel a strong urge to hang out with the misters
To leap up some rocks and spawn with my sisters
I know the way back and I’m all set to go
Through the Laundry’s big tide and really rough flow
But sea lions are waiting, nets too, I am told
I might get chewed up, or smoked and served cold

Oceanic Odes ~ Salmon Rush-die


White Wily King with Radishes and Peas

The flesh of about one in twenty King salmon is white due to genetic anomalies. The meat is mild, nutty, delicious.


Coat salmon lightly in olive oil. Season and grill. Meanwhile sauté radishes until golden in generous butter. Add a small amount of water, miso paste, an anchovy and mustard and stir until a smooth sauce forms and the peas are just tender. Top with salmon.

White King Salmon with Radishes, Peas and Golden Mashed Potatoes

The Inian Islands Cathedral

4 comments

    • Team Jupiter says:

      Not this wily King. We bought it from a fisherman in Sitka. The white ones used to be a bargain because commercial chefs didn’t want them, but now they’ve been discovered and are the next cool thing in fish gourmand circles (and I don’t mean bubblenet humpbacks – they aren’t that discerning!)

  1. Stefanie Brouwer says:

    The photos and this post are so spectacular that I’m getting goose bumps! Very few people get to see what you’re seeing so thank you for sharing all this. How wonderful to have your daughter visit. I remember her from the launch of the Lynx at Rockport ME 20 years ago. She was maybe 5 or 6.

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